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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 4.5

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct comes out ahead, 53 to 48 and 31 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    31/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $1.55
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

  3. Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 4.5

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    48/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.00 / $5.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 4.5
01 — Verdict

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is our pick

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (48) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on price. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructQwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $0.613 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Qwen3 Max: Text · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: Text, Images · Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 MaxQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructClaude Haiku 4.5
Price50%326036
Inputs & features30%256080
Context window20%372432
Overall100%31/10053/10048/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 4.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4—142.4 (best)
ECI rank#91 of 148—#90 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions72.6% (best)—71.2%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics19.0%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3% (best)—66.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions48.8% (best)—13.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.20$0.30 (best)$1.00
Output$6.00$1.55 (best)$5.00
Cached input——$0.10
Blended (3:1)$2.40$0.613 (best)$2.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 12 providersOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens200,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens64,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-max—claude-haiku-4-5
API providers161234 (best)
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Sep 23, 2025Oct 15, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Mar 31, 2025Feb 28, 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$6.10
  • Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 Max, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct or Claude Haiku 4.5?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (48) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on price. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct or Claude Haiku 4.5?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.55 output per million tokens (median across 12 API providers). Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.613 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (3.3× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (3.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3 Max has an ECI of 142.4, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has not been scored yet and Claude Haiku 4.5 has an ECI of 142.4.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Claude Haiku 4.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5 and 131,072 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct up to 32,768, Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Max accepts text; Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct accepts text and images; Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max and Claude Haiku 4.5 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025; Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct Mar 31, 2025, Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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